Sublime Photography

What is the point of photography and art? My thought:

To make sublime (great) photos, which inspire and uplift the souls of future photographers.

Is it possible to make timeless photos?

Marseille, 2013. Film Leica M6, 35mm Leica Summicron ASPH, Kodak Portra 400.

I think it is obvious that it is possible to make great photos. The better question is:

What standard do you set for yourself?

Or in other words:

How great do you aspire towards?

Who are your benchmarks?

San Diego, 2013 #portra400

For me, my benchmarks include:

Why Henri Cartier-Bresson?

FRANCE. First paid holidays. 1936.
FRANCE. 1936.ÃŠIle de France. Bords de Marne. Premiers congÂŽs payÂŽs. Ile de France region. Along the river Marne. First paid vacations.
INDIA. 1947-1948. 1948. Delhi. Birla House.GANDHI the day before his assassination.
CHINA. Shanghai. 1949.ÃŠ “Des ÂŽtudiants dansent le “Yanko” dans un dÂŽfilÂŽ. Les paysans du Nord avaient depuis longtemps l’habitude de chanter et de danser le “Yanko” au printemps, Âˆ l’ÂŽpoque des semailles. Mais le “Yanko” fut adoptÂŽ par les armÂŽes populaires, les suivit dans leur avance, et se propagea dans tout le pays. Sa vogue fut extraordinaire et beaucoup de produits commerciaux prirent le mot “Yanko” comme marque publicitaire.” Cartier-Bresson Since July 1946, China has been torn apart by civil war between the Communist forces of MAO TSE-TUNG and the Nationalist forces (Kuomintang) of General TCHANG KAI CHEK. Slowly the Communist gained terrain and take the controll of Shanghai the 27th of May.
Martine’s Legs. 1967.
FRANCE. Paris. 1968.ÃŠ Studio of Marcel DUCHAMP, French visual artist & poet. Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris.
TURKEY. Istanbul. The Golden Horn. 1964.
HUNGARY. 1964. To the south of Gyor.
NETHERLANDS. 1956.ÃŠProvince of Gueldre, near Herwijnen. The Rhine river in the distance.
SWEDEN. 1956. The river Tornea near the frontier with Finland.
AUSTRIA. Salzburg. 1953.
INDIA. 1947-1948. Delhi. 1948. The Sumna river. The crowd watching GANDHI’s ashes being scattered.
1948. Delhi. GANDHI’s funeral. Crowds gathered between Birla House and the cremation ground, throwing flowers. THIS PHOTO MAY NOT BE CROPPED OR TRIMMED IN REPRODUCTION.
INDIA. 1948. Delhi. GANDHI’s funeral. Crowds gathered between Birla House and the cremation ground.
FRANCE. Paris. 1968. French artist Marcel DUCHAMP and US artist MAN RAY, at Man Ray’s home.
INDIA. DELHI. 1948. GANDHI’s funeral. THIS PHOTO MAY NOT BE CROPPED OR TRIMMED IN REPRODUCTION.
FRANCE. French writer and semiologist Roland BARTHES. 1963.
MEXICO. Mexico City. 1963.
MEXICO. 1963. Cantla. Anniversary celebrations of the death of Emiliano ZAPATA, the Mexican Revolutionary.
MEXICO. Natcho Aguirre. Santa Clara.1934.
GREAT BRITAIN. London. Coronation of King George VI. 12 May 1937. “People had waited all night in Trafalgar Square in order not to miss any part of the coronation ceremony of George VI. Some slept on benches and others on newspapers. The next morning, one who was wearier than the others, had not yet wakened to see the ceremony for which he had kept such a late vigil.”
USA. New York City. Manhattan. Downtown. 1947.
WEST GERMANY. 1962. West Berlin. The Berlin wall.
FRANCE. French Communist deputy Mara LUCAS (Marie-Claude VOGEL-VAILLANT-COUTURIER). 1945.
SOVIET UNION. Moscow. 1954. Elementary school.
FRANCE. Paris. Pont des Arts. French writer and philosopher, Jean-Paul SARTRE. 1946.
INDIA. Punjab. Kurukshetra. A refugee camp for 300.000 people. Refugees exercising in the camp to drive away lethargy and despair. Autumn 1947.
INDIA. Delhi. The cramation of GANDHI. 1948.
INDIA. Kashmir. Srinagar. 1948. Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, praying toward the sun rising behind the Himalayas.
MEXICO. Oaxaca. Juchitan. 1963. Market. Zapotec women.
USA. NYC. Harlem. 1947. Easter Sunday.
SPAIN. Madrid. 1933.
USA. New York City. West Point cadets and their admiring young ladies attend the Army versus Notre-Dame football game. 1947.
GERMANY. Dessau. A transit camp was located between the American and Soviet zones organised for refugees; political prisoners, POW’s, STO’s (Forced Labourers), displaced persons, returning from the Eastern front of Germany that had been liberated by the Soviet Army. A young Belgian woman and former Gestapo informer, being identified as she tried to hide in the crowd. April 1945.
USA. Fire in Hoboken, facing Manhattan. 1947.
USA. Louisiana. New Orleans. 1947.
USA. Massachusetts. Cape Cod. July 4th, 1947. Independence Day. “This woman explained to me that the flagpole over her door was broken but ‘on such a day as this, one keeps one’s flag on one’s heart.’” I felt in her a touch of the strength and robustness of the early American pioneers’.
USA. Massachusetts. Boston. 1947.
UNITED STATES. Texas. 1946. Ulvade. Lunch wagon. THIS PHOTO MAY NOT BE CROPPED OR TRIMMED IN REPRODUCTION.
Picture 004
FRANCE. Paris. Montmartre. The visit of Cardinal PACELLI. “The crowd was outside of SacrÃ©-Coeur waiting to see him and to touch him if possible. People were shouting “Vive Dieu”. From where I stood in the crowd I could see only the top of his head, so I held my camera high above me and shot.” 1938.
MEXICO. 1934. MEXICO. Mexico City. 1934.
DELHI, India — Crowds wait to pay last respects as Gandhi’s funeral cortege approaches the cremation ground, 1948.
CHINA. Beijing. Final days of the Kuomintang. A peasant, whose market has closed down and came to Beijing to sell his vegetables, sits to eat his provisions. A shopkeeper resigns to have nothing more to sell in his store. December 1948. Since July 1946, China has been torn apart by civil war between the Communist forces of MAO TSE-TUNG and the Nationalist forces (Kuomintang) of General TCHANG KAI CHEK. Slowly the Communist gained terrain and in December of 1948 they took siege of Peking.
ITALY. Abruzzo. Scanno. 1951.
ITALY. Salerno. 1933.
SPAIN. Andalucia. Seville. 1933.
ITALY. Friouli. Trieste. 1933.
ITALY. Trieste. French writer, AndrÃ© PIEYRE DE MANDIARGUES and Italian painter, Leonor FINI. 1933.
SPAIN. Valencia Province. Alicante. 1933.
SPAIN. Valencia. 1933. Inside the sliding doors of the bullfight arena.
SPAIN. Madrid. 1933.
FRANCE. Marseille. The AllÂŽe du Prado. 1932. I was walking behind this man when all of a sudden he turned around.
FRANCE. Marseille. 1932. A cafÂŽ in Vieux-Port.
SPAIN. Madrid. 1932.
FRANCE. The Var department. HyÃ¨res. 1932.
FRANCE. Paris. The Quai St Bernard, near the Gare d’Austerlitz railway station. 1932.
GERMANY. Berlin. Taxi drivers. 1931.
GREAT BRITAIN. England. London. Hyde Park in the grey drizzle. 1937.
SPAIN. Valencia. 1933.
MEXICO. 1963. Village situated between Irapuato and Guadelajara.
USA. NYC. Manhattan. Times Square. New Year’s eve. 1959.
USA. Massachusetts. Cape Cod. July 4th, 1947. Independence Day.
GREAT-BRITAIN. England. Berkshire. Eton. 1962.
INDIA. Delhi. Birla House. 1948. Interwiew with GANDHI (back) the day before his assassination.
USA. MALCOLM X. 1961.
FRANCE. Paris. The Palais Royal Gardens. 1959.
SWITZERLAND. Zurich. 1953.
MEXICO. State of Oaxaca. Oaxaca. 1963.
MEXICO. 1963. Mexico City. Reception at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
MEXICO. Popocatepetl volcano. 1963.
MEXICO. Puebla. 1963.
MEXICO. 1963. Los Remedios near Mexico City.
USA. NYC. Brooklyn. Grand Street. 1947.
USA. Washington DC. 1957.
USA. Illinois. Ottawa. Boy Scout Jamboree. 1960.
USA. New York City. Manhattan. Bankers Trust. 1960.
SWITZERLAND. 1991.
ROMANIA. In a train. 1975.
SOVIET UNION. Leningrad. Peter and Paul’s fortress on the Neva river. 1973.
FRANCE. Brie. 1968.
SWITZERLAND. 1966. Zurich. Near the Selnau station.
INDIA. Gujarat. Ahmedabad. 1966. Women spreading out their saris before the sun.
JAPAN. Tokyo. A farewell service for the late actor Danjuro held on November 13th 1965 at the Aoyama Funeral Hall (according to Shinto rites). 1965.
YUGOSLAVIA. Kosovo. Prizren. 1965.
Irish playwright Samuel BECKETT. 1964.
WEST GERMANY. West Berlin. The East German authorities (German Democratic Republic) authorised in 1961 the building of a wall separating the two sectors of the the city. 1962.
GREECE. Cyclades. Island of Siphnos. 1961.
FRANCE. Paris. The ‘Jardin des Plantes’ gardens. 1959.
USA. Washington DC. 1957. The Capitol. Statuary Hall.
WEST GERMANY. The Rhineland. 1956. Rhineland-Westphalia. Cologne.
FRANCE. Paris. 1956. First ardr. Quai des Tuileries.

Master of elegance, painterly photos, humanity as a dance of shapes and forms, surrealism, documenting history and humanity, dynamism and energy in photos, photos of people as human sculpture, seeing the world as beautiful (in spite of all the pain and destruction), variety of imagery, grandeur of ambition, extreme self-discipline, worldly travels, pioneering the ‘decisive moment‘ concept, boldness in shooting, love of art, love of people, his sense of ‘visual play’ (composition as a fun game), layered composition photos.

I actually believe that Henri Cartier-Bresson is under-rated. Why? We only know him for his iconic photos, but his lesser well-known photos are also insanely epic!

Henri’s only fault:

He eventually stopped innovating in photography and got bored with it, then gave up photography, and picked up painting/drawing instead (which he actually wasn’t very good at).

This is a sign of a man who has wearied of life. Perhaps he was ultimately a pessimist? Perhaps fame did him a disservice? (apparently he hated that the public only liked his puddle jumping photos, and not his other works which HCB considered greater).

Can a photograph last forever?

Detroit, 2013 #flash #portra400 #streetportrait #contaxt3

Obviously from a physics/philosophical view, no photograph can last “forever”. When we say forever what do we mean? 100 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years?

Downtown LA, 2015 #portra400

Furthermore, it is difficult to ascertain which photos will last, and which photos won’t last.

However, I believe it is the STRIVING towards making great photos is what makes photography fun and interesting!

And this is the thing:

My taste changes over time. Photos in the past which I once thought were ‘meh’, become VERY APPEALING to me as time goes on!

I call this process “letting your photos marinate“. Time is the ultimate counselor of how great our photos are (or not).

Shooting a lot of photos to make a few great ones.

This is the fun game of photography:

You will have to shoot HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of photographs to make just a few good photos.

Furthermore:

You might spend thousands of dollars, many years of your life, and hundreds of hours pursuing your photographic art for just a few great photos.

Is this justified! YES!!!

What are you trying to communicate through your photos?

Every author is trying to communicate something about their personal philosophy and world-view.

For example, the ancient poet Homer strove to communicate in the Iliad:

Heroism, bravery, bravado is part of the divine comedy of life — even though it does lead to your own personal death and downfall.

What did our friend Robert Capa try to communicate through his photos?

Life is beautiful, joyful! To see the world from the eyes of a child. Even though there is much death, destruction and tragedy in life — life is still 1000x justified!